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Book Description

Did you know that Fruit Loops, Baked Lay's Potato Chips, and Cracker Jacks are vegan? Going vegan doesn't mean you have to only eat broccoli and tofu. It doesn't mean you have to eat "healthy" all the time. Most importantly, it doesn't mean you have to give up on eating just for fun. Everyone likes to pig out every now and then and vegans crave salt, sugar, and comfort food just like the rest of us. Vegan Junk Food provides 225 delicious recipes like: Barbecue "Chicken" Pizza; Chocolate Raspberry Muffins; Vegan Whoopie Pies; Hawaiian Rum Cake; "Bacon" Wrapped Water Chestnuts; and Jalapeno Poppers. With 2 inserts of full-colour photos, Vegan Junk Food will have readers hungry for more!

Did you know that Fruit Loops, Baked Lay's Potato Chips, and Cracker Jacks are vegan? Going vegan doesn't mean you have to only eat broccoli and tofu. It doesn't mean you have to eat "healthy" all the time. Most importantly, it doesn't mean you have to give up on eating just for fun. Everyone likes to pig out every now and then and vegans crave salt, sugar, and comfort food just like the rest of us. Vegan Junk Food provides 225 delicious recipes like: Barbecue "Chicken" Pizza; Chocolate Raspberry Muffins; Vegan Whoopie Pies; Hawaiian Rum Cake; "Bacon" Wrapped Water Chestnuts; and Jalapeno Poppers. With 2 inserts of full-colour photos, Vegan Junk Food will have readers hungry for more!

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Vegan Junk Food is meant for you to create occasional treats, but these recipes are worth the wait!" --Vegetarian Journal

About the Author

Lane Gold (Los Angeles, CA) is a personal chef and caterer who specialized in homestyle vegan food. She has served conscientious meals all over Southern California to a widely varied clientele from inner-city children to rock stars. Her favorite vegan junk foods is anything that can be eaten with a chip or peanut butter and chocolate in any form.

Lane Gold's VEGAN JUNK FOOD is my new favorite cookbook. (The previous title holder? Wheeler del Torro's THE VEGAN SCOOP - which should tell you a little sumthin' sumthin'! Namely, that I like my vegan food filled with empty calories.) At my request, I was lucky enough to receive a review copy - along with two copies to give away - from the publisher, Adams Media. With a name like "Vegan Junk Food," I figured it couldn't disappoint.

The husband and I tried out about twenty recipes before I sat down to write this review; and, while I don't usually review cookbooks, this is easily the largest number of recipes I've sampled for a cookbook review, like, ever. (I just couldn't stop myself; everything looks so good!) Possibly it's the most recipes I've made from a single cookbook, period. Though I own a ridiculous number of them, I don't use cookbooks with much frequency; more often I cook from memory or pull recipes off the internet. But VEGAN JUNK FOOD? Most definitely joining my repertoire!

The book's obvious strength, of course, is the food: oodles and oodles of junk food! Pizza. Pasta. Tacos. Pot pies. Casseroles. Cupcakes, pies, and brownies. Empty calories as far as the eye can see! Wait, that's not entirely fair: some of these foods aren't all that bad for you. Ironically, many of the recipes in VEGAN JUNK FOOD are actually healthier than my own versions. The Mac and Cheese Bake, for example, uses a vegan Velveeta-like cheese sauce made of potatoes, carrots, cauliflower, nutritional yeast, and soy milk. Even factoring in the additional vegan cheese shreds in this dish, it's still way better for you than my own mac & cheese recipe, which is basically just pasta and processed vegan cheeses (namely, Daiya and Follow Your Heart). Don't let the book's title fool you: while these foods may look and taste like junk food, they're not all super-trashy.

With options for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert, VEGAN JUNK FOOD is versatile. Mix and match the recipes for something new - or experiment to make them your own. For example, I used leftovers from some of the recipes to create new banana ice cream dishes!

While some of the recipes call for pricey vegan meats and cheeses, Gold doesn't rely on these products exclusively. (Unlike my own blog, VEGAN JUNK FOOD doesn't read like a Lightlife ad!) In fact, she offers diy recipes for many of these vegan staples so you can make `em your own bad self, oftentimes at a fraction of the price! See, e.g., gravy (page 61); ricotta (pg. 120); sour cream (pg. 120); cheese sauce (pg. 121) basil pesto (pg. 124); and ranch dressing (pg. 126), to name just a few!

My complaints are few and relatively minor. Some recipes reference other recipes - to return to the Mac and Cheese Bake, the Cheese Sauce is its own recipe, located in a different section of the book - but don't include a page number alongside the recipe title, thus forcing the reader to consult the index in order to find it. A minor annoyance, compounded by the index's lack of user friendliness. (I find it counter-intuitive and difficult to use.) An estimated cook time and rating for difficulty on each dish would have been nice too, but I suppose both are easy enough to gauge by reading through the instructions.

I also ran into issues with two of the recipes - the batter for the Almond Joy Bar Cake and the Red Pepper, Caramelized Onion, and Hash Brown Quiche wasn't pourable when it ostensibly should have been. (Also, the Bar Cake stuck to the pan!) Still, out of twenty recipes, two small glitches? Not so bad! Especially when you consider my lackluster track record with baked goods. Brownies, why you no like me?

My wife turned to the "Dark Side" of the force about 13 years ago, and became a "Vegetarian" draging along with her my new born daughter and two years later my son. Me? I am a dirty republican capitalist from Texas... I am a "meatgan"Even though my kids and wife has never been sick since then, I on the other hand have been (mostly due to bacon!... Man! I love Bacon)I dont cook, not even rice! All I know to do is boil eggs. So, in my house I have to be fed. That also leaves me as a third world citizen where I don't have a vote in what's cooking or what's for dinner.

Last two years, for suckers's day... I mean father's day, I got one stinking piece of filet mignon barbequed outside (wife refused to cook it inside.) I also notice her feeling a disconfort of nauseas while cooking my dead animal on the grill.

THIS BOOK brought a new perspective into my whole experience of Vegan food. The book has allowed my wife to cook for us (remember I said I dont know how to cook) wonderful strips of some vegetable in the shape AND TASTE of BACON!! It was delicious. Then she cooked several other of the receipes in there, and they were AMAZING. They looked and TASTED like my favorite junkfood, but guess what?? they were healthy and good for me... go figure!

Ever since I got this book, I started checking for glitches in the matrix. I said to myself... "this... looks like bacon, taste like bacon smell like bacon and feels like bacon; but I know it is just a figment of my imagination..." So, I asked my lovely wife to just said to me "Honey I cooked some 'original' bacon for you"... Ahhh Ignorance is Indeed Bliss!!

soon as I saw this book I had to have it... so glad that I oordered it... so many receipes on normal food, that me and the kids love...the only reason I gave it 4 stars, is because I like pictures, pictures, pictures...

I LOVE this book!!! Love, love, love it! I've used it so much that it's worn and weathered. I've tried over 20 recipes for my vegan family of four, and so far there has been only one that nobody has liked. All the others were loved by at least some, if not all of us. (Some of the recipes are too salty, so I mark them and use less salt the next time.) This book enabled me to enjoy Alfredo sauce again as a vegan. I haven't liked any other vegan Alfredo recipe that I've tried, but this one is delicious! There are too many excellent, to-die-for recipes to list. We've enjoyed both the sweet and savory items. I have bookshelves filled with vegan cookbooks, and this is one that I whip out a lot. The only thing that would make this book better is if it included nutritional information. Oh, and more photos would be great too. But 5 stars for the deliciousness!

I love this cookbook! This book has tons of recipes. It is well balanced with some super easy and simple recipes, some moderate, and some elaborate. All the recipes are sinful and wonderfully "junky" while at the same time being loaded with nutrition. Lots of great recipes for my children! So many wonderful ways to bring "cruelty free" to the family table.

3 cheers for vegan junk food! I LOVE this cookbook! I'm not a huge junk food eater but I do want it once in a while & I want to continue living vegan. This book allows me to have the best of both Worlds. Thank you for putting a bunch of yummy junk food recipes in one place:)